


journalistic integrity

by and_hera



Series: hold me fast [3]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Post-Canon, Reminiscing, no beta we die like men, oh to be jack wright playing wii sports resort with your best friend you're secretly in love with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27074392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/and_hera/pseuds/and_hera
Summary: Lily sticks her tongue out at him like a five year old because she really can’t be bothered to keep up the argument. She’s just glad she wore her good tennis shoes before they started hiking through Sweetser Forest. “How far is it, really?” she asks.Ben shrugs. “Couple miles. It’s really not that bad of a walk, and we’re getting an early start.”“Too early.”“Yeah, well, maybe if you went to bed earlier-”or, the one in which Lily and Ben also go on an adventure (through the woods with no cell service in December).
Relationships: Ben Arnold & Lily Wright, Ben Arnold/Emily Potter (background), Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright (background)
Series: hold me fast [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956505
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	journalistic integrity

**Author's Note:**

> i am back again! how have i managed to keep this on track three weeks in a row? who knows! don't expect this to keep up!  
> ben and lily were surprisingly difficult to write together, so i hope you enjoy <3 no i did not elaborate on the end of this part in this fic at all <3

“Are you worried?” Ben asks. His shoulders are hunched over- it’s funny, the guy’s five foot four on a good day, and yet he chronically slouches- and his hands are in his hoodie pocket.

Lily rolls her eyes. “I’m fine,” she says. “Not worried for myself, anyway.”

Ben nods. “I’m worried more for Emily and Sammy,” he says. “I think we’ll be fine.”

“Even though we’re going directly into the line of fire?”

“Even though we’re going directly into the line of fire. I can handle myself just fine, Ben.”

Ben huffs. He never mastered the art of a poker face, which really is par for the course with Ben Arnold. Lily can see worry written all over him. And even though Lily’s much better at hiding it than Ben is, she gets it. Ben’s girlfriend and best friend are going somewhere without Ben to help, and the dude’s got a hero complex.

Lily pulls her hood over her head. She’s wearing a hoodie that was either Jack’s or Sammy’s, she honestly can’t remember at this point. One of them left it at the apartment when they moved out, and she’s been wearing it more and more recently.

(The other day, Sammy came out of his bedroom with a hoodie on that said “WRIGHT” on the back. Lily wanted to punch him in the face, but she settled for the arm, hitting him hard enough that he stumbled but not hard enough for it to hurt. Ben had laughed, sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. Sammy had given her a small smile, which she returned for a split second before scowling and saying something appropriately mean.)

(Sammy’s nicer than she is, and didn’t acknowledge the hoodie she’s wearing today. She wished that he had.)

“Hey, brighten up, Arnold,” Lily says. “We’ll be fine. All we got to do is sneak into a town that’s, according to your lovely girlfriend, infested with shadows that want to kill us, find Troy, or someone else who can help, do something, and then sneak back out.”

Ben snorts. “Easy peasy,” he says. “No problem for two phenomenal journalists like us, huh?” And he’s obviously joking, making fun of her little slogan.

Lily plays along. “Like you’re a phenomenal journalist,” she replies. “Give it another four years and a few more heartbreaks, and then _maybe_ I’ll let you join the club.”

Now Ben rolls his eyes. “C’mon,” he says. “We have a ways to walk, since Emily and Sammy took the car.”

Lily groans. “God, this is going to fucking suck,” she complains. “I’m not made for long walking, Benny. I don’t care how often you go to the gym-”

“It’s _Ben_ -”

“But no one should be able to just walk over the river, through the woods, and right past Grandma’s for another six miles and still be as fuckin’ chipper as you are.”

Ben sighs. “It’s really not that far of a walk,” he says. “You’re not going to die, Lily.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I do, in fact, know you.”

Lily sticks her tongue out at him like a five year old because she really can’t be bothered to keep up the argument. She’s just glad she wore her good tennis shoes before they started hiking through Sweetser Forest. “How far is it, really?” she asks.

Ben shrugs. “Couple miles. It’s really not that bad of a walk, and we’re getting an early start.”

“Too early.”

“Yeah, well, maybe if you went to bed earlier-”

“Like you’re one to talk, Arnold-”

“Hey, my sleep schedule’s fucked because of the show! Not my fault!”

Lily sighs. “Whatever,” she says. “How long will the walk take us?”

“I would check the GPS, but there’s no signal out here. Not many people take these paths.” Ben shrugs again. “An hour? Maybe two?”

“Jesus H,” she replies. “This’ll be fun.”

There’s a nice moment where neither of them speak. Truly, it’s nice. Lily savors it. She wishes she had thought to bring headphones with her when they took off from the apartment, because she wants to have an excuse to ignore Ben, who keeps glancing at her and then looking away.

“What’s up with you?” Lily asks eventually. “Spit it out already.”

“I was going to ask you the same question,” Ben says. “Why- you’re like- you’re not acting like _you_.”

“Well, maybe my brother being confirmed to be alive and then fucked up and evil immediately after puts a damper on my mood,” Lily says dryly. “Sorry if I’m not a goddamn ray of sunshine.”

Ben points at her. “See! You’re doing the thing.”

“The thing.”

He smiles, apparently pleased with himself. “You’re all prickly and mean,” he says.

“Ben, in general, I am a prickly and mean person,” Lily replies, deadpan.

Ben waves her off, unfazed. “You get all swear-y when you’re in a mood,” he says. “Well, more so than usual. And then you start a bunch of fights within the span of a few minutes and don’t finish any of them.”

“Well, shit, you’ve got me all figured out, kid.”

Ben crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not a kid,” he says, “ _but_ I’m not rising to that bait because I know you’re just starting another fight again!”

Lily sighs. She hates this guy. She hates that he’s usually right about people. “You know, you used to think I was _so_ cool,” she says. “What the fuck happened to you?”

“Maybe it’s what happened to _you_ ,” Ben replies.

“Jesus. Low blow?”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Lily huffs. She can see her breath. She fucking hates winter. “And I’m _fine_. Is it too much to ask that we just walk in silence?”

Ben stops walking completely and looks at her. “Lily, have you met me?”

It’s a fair point. 

“Whatever,” Lily replies. “Fine. Just don’t talk about… I don’t know. Don’t be an asshole.”

Ben untangles his fingers from the knots he’s tying and untying with his hoodie strings and salutes her. She rolls her eyes.

He hums showtunes for a bit. At one point, Lily recognizes one. She almost wants to say something, to ask, _is that from_ Wicked _,_ even though she knows that it’s from _Wicked_ already and doesn’t need to ask. She wants to, but then she doesn't, because halfway through it turns into a song from _Hamilton_ and Lily wouldn’t have asked him anyway.

“You guys met in college, right?” Ben asks.

“I think this should qualify as being an asshole,” Lily says.

“It’s a harmless question!” Ben says, and his voice cracks. “You guys always get… cagey about it when I ask you together. And I don’t like to make Sammy talk about something if he doesn’t want to talk about it, after everything.”

“What, so you don’t care about what _I_ want to talk about?” Lily replies. She raises an eyebrow.

Ben says, “Not at _all_. C’mon, Lily, you know that.”

“Do I?”

“Yes, you asshole.”

“In terms of asshole-ery, you’re winning. Just for the record.”

“ _Lily_.”

“ _Ben_.”

Ben sighs dramatically, so _Lily_ sighs dramatically to prove a point, and he mutters “Jack in a Box Jesus” under his breath. 

“Fine, Benny.” (Ben cuts in with a _Ben_!) “Just say what you want to say and get it over with. Shotgun’s too soft to take another emotional beating but you know I can stomach it.”

“That’s not the reason I’m asking,” Ben says slowly, “but I’ll go with it.”

Lily, because she’s someone who asks questions by nature, cuts in before he can continue and says, “Pray tell, what _is_ the reason, then?”

Ben replies, “Because I only ever hear about it from Sammy. I love him, but I’m sure he’s always going to be a little biased towards himself and Jack.”

“Journalistic integrity,” Lily says.

“Something like that.”

Lily rolls her eyes, because of _course_ Ben cares about journalistic integrity while asking his best friend and his best friend’s fiance’s sister about said fiance. Isn’t that just in fucking character. “Look,” she says. “They’ve been in love since, I don’t know, the day they met? Neither of them admitted it. Jack and Sammy met in some class freshman year, and dormed together sophomore year, and then we all were in an apartment junior and senior year. They got together a month after we graduated. We went to Disney World. We worked at 1090 for five years, first as interns, then with our own show. And then they left.”

“Jesus,” Ben says. “You make it all sound so fast.”

“It was a life, Arnold,” Lily replies. “Of course it went fast.”

“I thought you were older than Jack.”

“Worked for a few years to save money for college. We ended up going together, which sucked, but it was okay, because Jack was an obnoxious little shit but he was a good guy in the end.”

He hums to himself. “And they were in love that whole time?”

Lily nods, and she doesn’t look at Ben. She once again wishes she had headphones with her. “They were in love up until the day Jack left,” she says. “At least, I know Jack was, because the kid never shut up about it. And you know Stevens. Guy’s all or nothing, even if he’s been leaning more towards nothing lately.”

“Not anymore,” Ben says sharply. 

Lily puts her hands up in surrender. “I know, I know, calm your tits. I get it.”

He sighs in a non-dramatic way, for once. He shoves his hands in his hoodie pocket for all of fifteen seconds, and then immediately takes them out and starts fidgeting with the earrings Emily left clipped to the end of his hoodie.

“What were you hoping I would talk about?” Lily asks.

Ben shrugs. “Specific things. I don’t know. I only know Jack from like, vignettes that Sammy’s mentioned offhand. I know he proposed.”

“I didn’t,” Lily says bluntly. 

Ben pauses for a second, and then keeps walking as if nothing happened. Lily doesn’t smile, but she appreciates herself for a moment, because startling Ben is always a win.

“Yeah,” Ben says. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

Lily rolls her eyes. “I’ve gotten over it,” she says, like she would say even if she hadn’t. But she _has_. After all the heartbreak those two assholes have put her through, she can handle not knowing that Jack popped the question.

“But you know what I mean?” Ben says. “Like, I just want to know about him. And Sammy tells me about him, but you know how he is.”

“What, a coward?”

“I was going to say _cagey_ , Lily.”

“Whatever.”

“You should stop calling him that,” Ben says. “He’s-”

“If you defend Samuel Kyle Stevens’ ass to me one more time,” Lily says dryly, and she walks closer to him so she can elbow him in the ribs. He makes an indignant noise, but he doesn’t elbow her back. “Ben, I’ve known him longer than anyone he still has contact with, barring Jack. Actually, no, I’ve known him _longer_ now, because Jack’s been in the goddamn Void for five years.”

“Your point?”

“My _point_ ,” Lily says, “is that I think I’ve earned the right to bitch about Sammy fuckin’ Stevens all I damn well please.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to be cruel,” Ben replies. “I thought- I thought you guys have been nicer, lately.”

Lily rolls her eyes. “I’m always nice,” she says, and she smiles at him sweetly. “Ben, I’m _sorry_ if I seem a _bit_ more bitchy than my usual standards, but Sammy’s a big boy, he can take it. And he’s not even _here_. He’s off with your girlfriend, trying to find old books or whatever the hell, while we’re stuck trekking through the wilds of Sweetser Forest to get back to King Falls. And yeah, sure, Jack- if it was Jack- was an ass to him when he called, but he was an ass to me, too.”

Ben reaches to touch her arm, but Lily moves. “Lily,” he says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“It’s _fine_ , Ben,” she says, “because I’m a big girl and I can take it, too. But yeah, I’m not going to be perfectly fine and fuckin’ dandy after all of that.”

“I don’t expect you to be,” Ben says. “Neither of you. Hell, I was shaken up by it. I’ve never heard his voice when it wasn’t on recordings.”

“You haven’t seen his face, either, have you,” Lily replies. “Sammy never kept pictures on his phone. You could just Google, though.”

Ben shakes his head. “I don’t do that,” he says. “There was a while when I had _no_ clue who Sammy was, his past, where he lived- I should have looked him up.”

Lily scoffs. “But you didn’t.”

“But I didn’t, because his life is his life and he’ll tell me about it when he wants.”

“Then why are you asking me about it?”

Ben shrugs. “I don’t know,” he says. “I just want to know… something. I don’t think he’ll mind.”

Lily shakes her head. “You’re something else, Arnold,” she says. “Jack in a Box Jesus.”

“Whatever,” he says. “If you don’t want to talk about it, then we don’t have to talk about it.”

“We had a Wii,” Lily says. “And we had Wii Sports Resort on it, and Sammy and Jack and I would play bowling.”

Ben snorts. “Who won?”

“Oh, me, obviously.”

“Really?”

“ _Obviously_.”

Ben says, “Oh, sure. Lily Wright, known Wii bowling champion.”

“Sammy was so bad at it.”

“I can imagine.”

“Jack gave me a run for my money, though.”

“I guess it runs in the Wright family genes.”

Lily laughs, then, short and loud. The woods are tall around them. “I guess,” she says. “Does that tell you what you want to know?”

Ben thinks about it for a minute, and then he nods. “I think so,” he says. “Sure. A little more hard data to work with.”

“ _Hard data_ ,” Lily snickers. “You’re treating it like it’s a puzzle to solve.”

“It is, sorta,” Ben replies. “When we get him back, it’ll be a lot easier, I think.”

Lily shrugs, because Sammy and Jack have always been fairly private people, especially about each other, and especially to people that aren’t her. But Ben’s Sammy’s new little brother, and Ben’s also incredibly similar to Jack, so she can’t imagine they won’t tell him everything eventually.

And Ben’s a smart man, so he’ll be fine. She’s sure he’ll put the pieces together before they even bring him home. But Lily’s an asshole, and she does have a reputation to maintain, so she says, “I don’t know if you’ve got the skills to actually figure anything out, especially if you can’t even Google shit for moral reasons,” and Ben replies by yelling something incoherent, and she laughs at him.

* * *

They eventually make it out of the woods. Lily is sure that it was longer than an hour and a half, but whatever. She knows they have to be close, because she gets a text, which means she has at least three bars of service. She looks at the text. It’s from Katie, and it says, _Lily, what the hell happened?_ And Katie texts a lot, so only having one text is what worries her.

“Ben,” Lily says, “I know Emily had her whole cryptic eye-glowing hands-shining thing before we all set out and left. I know she was like ‘oh yes, there are shadows running amok in the town! Everything is horrifying!’ Yadda yadda yadda.”

“Yes, that is what she said,” Ben agrees. “It’s also what DBD was saying, especially with the latest chapters we translated. If the door is opened, everything goes to hell.”

“Yeah, well, right,” Lily says. “So. What are we supposed to really expect from this?” She steps onto a pavement road, and she thinks it’s the one she drove on the first night she came to King Falls. If you went backwards a mile or two, you’d find the sign. Go forwards a few minutes, and you can see the town in its glory below, since they’re still up in the mountains. “What does this look like? What are the visuals?”

Ben starts jogging, which makes Lily want to punch him more, because even though she played soccer in college, she is _not_ in shape any more. She jobs after him to keep up. “I have no idea,” he confesses, and eventually they make it to the part of the road where it starts to dip down the hill, and they can see the town below, can make out Main Street. Lily’s sure she can see the pavilion in the square.

“Is it… empty?” she says. “I don’t see anyone down there. Are they all hiding inside?”

Ben isn’t looking at the town when Lily looks at him. He’s looking past it, at the hill on the other side of it, where a radio tower reaches up to the sky, the sun shining behind it. Normally, the light is on and blinking, and they’re on the air. But the light isn’t blinking, and Lily squints, she can see- _something_ moving up and down the metal legs of it, like a bunch of animals climbing it, but just _wrong_.

“Well, shit,” Lily says. “I guess that means the radio station’s done for. But we expected that, right?”

“It’s almost mesmerizing,” Ben says. “What are they doing? Are they like, blocking the signal?”

“I guess,” Lily replies. She looks back down at the town. “Ben, do you see them down there, too?”

“Do you?” Ben asks. He leans down as if he’ll get a better view. “I can’t tell if it’s just normal shadows or, you know, the fucked up and evil ones.”

Lily nods. “I think we’ll just have to go down there,” she says.

And then Ben says, “Lily, wait,” and she looks at him, and he’s pointing down at the main square, the one with the pavilion. And if Lily really squints, she can see a figure of a person. “Emily said everyone was hiding inside," he says. "So who is _that_?"

“I guess we’ll just have to go and find out,” Lily says. And it’s impossible, but she _swears_ that whoever it is waves at them.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah that's totally jack. :-) i _know_ i said that i was going to get into ben and lily in king falls, but i got distracted writing them reminiscing, so. we'll get to the chaos next time!  
> next week, you can expect... the aftermath of part 2. aka, we're going back to sammy and emily, and their unexpected visitor :)


End file.
